Compile Kernel 2.6 under Debian Sarge

This is a little bit different from compiling a kernel 2.6 on Debian Woody because Sarge uses grub as the boot loader (instead of lilo) and because module-init-tools, initrd-tools, procps are already installed. After all it's similar to http://www.howtoforge.com/howto_linux_kernel_2.6_compile_debian. This is how you do it:

It is normally a good idea to take the configuration of your existing (working!) kernel 2.6 as a starting point for the configuration of your new kernel. Usually the current kernel configuration is saved in a file under /boot, e.g. /boot/config-2.6.3. I will load this configuration and then do the changes I desire. If you do not have the config file of a working kernel 2.6 this one might help you: http://www.falkotimme.com/howtos/debian_kernel2.6_compile/config-2.6.8.1

I have two physical HDs, one 6.4 gig (primary slave) with / and a swap on it, and a 80 gig with windows and /home and a swap. I believe the ramdrive installed correctly (at least no errors popped up) and I used my earlier kernel as a start point, and it boots fine. Any ideas?

## default num
# Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and
# the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.
#
# You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry
# is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'.
default 0

I added a initrd line to my menu.lst, and it booted wonderfully - thanks a bunch! However, when compiling, I had installed the latest gcc (4.0) and g++, but it said it would use the earlier 3.3 version to compile the kernel. does this mean if I compile any modules (like the latest nvidia driver), they will use gcc/g++ 4.0, and won't be compatible with my kernel? Is there a way to check (to see if I'm wrong) which g++/gcc compiler I used?

I went through the whole process of upgrading to kernel 2.6 and I made sure that the initr-img was in the right place, but when I loaded with the new kernel 2.6 it gave me another error. The boot was trying to find /sbin/init/ and /dev/console/ where would those be entered in so that the kernel can load?

I went through the whole process of upgrading to kernel 2.6 and I made sure that the initr-img was in the right place, but when I loaded with the new kernel 2.6 it gave me another error. The boot was trying to find /sbin/init/ and /dev/console/ where would those be entered in so that the kernel can load?

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Hi,
I had the same problem with my upgrade to 2.6.8.
At first the kernel didn't boot at all, but after i
did mkinitrd and added the initrd image to grub menu.lst I had the same results as you had written.
As it turned out, I forgot to compile ext3 support into the kernel, which is needed if you have ext3 as the root fs (/).